The Prius may not be the best way to cut energy costs

People who drive a Toyota Prius or some other hybrid car can potentially save a lot of money in operating costs. However, it may not be the most effective way to cut energy consumption and expenses for everyone. Bloomberg has published an interesting article on some of the alternative ways of spending your transportation dollars that might save even more. From a dollars and sense perspective, a driver who doesn't drive a lot of miles might be better off with something smaller and cheaper like a Yaris (see also, this post). The Yaris is a lot cheaper but gets lower mileage. A driver who doesn't accumulate many miles may end up spending less in total payments and fuel costs and would have an incentive to drive less. Alternatively, one could forego a car altogether and take public transport and invest the difference. Although many investments are doing poorly in the current market, there are some investments that are doing well. Over the past couple of years oil industry stocks have done remarkably well, for example. Wouldn't it be great to skip driving and profit off of those who chose not to?

[Source: Bloomberg]